Blog Archive

31 Dec 2014

It’s hard to envision the future without the presence of nanotechnologies. Manipulating matter at an atomic and sub-molecular level has paved the way for major breakthroughs in chemistry, biology, and medicine. Yet, the unfolding applications of nanotechnology are far broader and more diverse than what we’ve imagined.

10. FILM MAKING

Without the invention of the scanning tunneling microscope (STM) in the 1980s, the field of nanotechnology might have remained science fiction. With its atomic precision the STM has enabled physicists to study the structure of matter in a way that was impossible with conventional microscopes.

The astonishing potential of STM was demonstrated by researchers at IBM when they created A Boy and His Atom, which was the world’s smallest animated film. It was produced by moving individual atoms on a copper surface.

The 90-second movie depicts a boy made of carbon monoxide molecules playing with a ball, dancing, and bouncing on a trampoline. Consisting of 202 frames, the animation takes action in a space as tiny as 1/1000 the size of a single human hair. To make the movie, researchers utilized a unique feature that comes with the STM: an electrically charged and extremely sharp stylus with a tip made of one atom. The stylus is capable of sensing the exact positions of the carbon molecules on the animation surface (which is the sheet of copper in this case). Therefore, it can be used to create images of the molecules as well as move them into new positions.

Watch the Video:

A BOY AND HIS ATOM: THE WORLD’S SMALLEST MOVIE

9. Oil Recovery

The global expenditure for oil exploration has risen exponentially during the past decade. However, efficiency in oil recovery has remained a major issue. When petroleum companies shut down an oil well, less than half of the oil in the reservoir is extracted. The rest is left behind because it is trapped in the rock where it is too expensive to recover. Luckily, with help from nanotechnology, scientists in China have discovered a way to work around this.

The solution is enhancing an existing drilling technique. The original technique involves injecting water into the rock pores where oil is located. This displaces the oil and forces it out. However, this method reveals its limitation as soon as the oil in the easily reached pores has been extracted. By then, water begins emerging from the well instead of oil.

To prevent this, Chinese researchers Peng and Ming Yuan Li have come up with the idea of infusing the water with nanoparticles that can plug the passages between the rock pores. This method is intended to make the water take narrower paths into the pores that contain oil and force the oil out. With successful field studies conducted in China, this method has proven highly efficient in recovering the 50 percent of the black gold that otherwise remains out of reach.

8 High-Resolution Displays

The images on computer screens are presented via tiny dots called pixels. Regardless of their sizes and shapes, the number of pixels on a screen has remained a determining factor of image quality. With traditional displays, however, more pixels meant larger and bulkier screens—an obvious limitation.

While companies were busy selling their colossal screens to consumers, scientists from Oxford University have discovered a way to create pixels that are just a few hundred nanometers across. This was achieved by exploiting the properties of a phase-change material called GST (a material found in thermal management products). In the experiment, the scientists used seven-nanometer-thick layers of GST sandwiched between transparent electrodes. Each layer—just 300 by 300 nanometers in size—acts as a pixel that can be electrically switched on and off. By passing electrical current through layers, the scientists were able to produce images with fair quality and contrast.

The nano-pixels will serve a variety of purposes where the conventional pixels have become impractical. For instance, their tiny size and thickness will make them a great choice for technologies such as smart glasses, foldable screens, and synthetic retinas. Another advantage of nano-pixel displays is their lower energy consumption. Unlike the existing displays that constantly refresh all pixels to form images, the GST-layer-based displays only refresh the part of the display that actually changes, saving power.

7 Color-Changing Paint

While experimenting on strings of gold nanoparticles, scientists at the University of California have stumbled upon an astonishing observation. They’ve noticed that the color of gold changes when a string of its particles is stretched or retracted, producing what one of the scientists described as a beautiful bright blue that morphs into purple and then red. The finding has inspired the scientists to create sensors out of gold nanoparticles that change colors when pressure is applied to them.

To produce the sensors, gold nanoparticles have to be added to a flexible polymer film. When the film is pressed, it stretches and causes particles to separate and the color to change. Pressing lightly turns the sensor purple while pressing harder turns it red. The scientists noticed this intriguing property not only in gold particles but also in silver where the particles change into yellow when stretched.

The sensors could serve a variety of purposes. For instance, they could be incorporated into furniture, such as couches or beds, to assess sitting or sleeping positions. Despite being made of gold, the sensor is tiny enough to overcome the cost issue.

6 Phone Charging

Whether it’s an iPhone, Samsung, or different type of phone, every smartphone that leaves the factory comes with two notorious downsides: battery life and the time it takes to recharge. While the first is still a universal problem, scientists from the city of Ramat Gan in Israel have managed to tackle the second problem by creating a battery that requires only 30 seconds to recharge.

The breakthrough was attributed to a project related to Alzheimer’s disease that was carried out by researchers from the University of Tel Aviv. The researchers discovered that the peptide molecules that shorten the brain’s neurons and cause disease have a very high capacitance (the ability to preserve electric charges). This finding has contributed to the foundation of StoreDot, a company that focuses on nanotechnologies that target consumer products. With help from researchers, StoreDot has developed NanoDots—technology that harnesses the peptides’ properties to improve the battery life of smartphones. The company demonstrated a prototype of its battery in Microsoft’s ThinkNext event. Using a Samsung Galaxy S3 phone, the battery was charged from zero to full in less than a minute.

5 Sophisticated Drug Delivery

Treatments for diseases such as cancer can be prohibitively expensive and, in some cases, too late. Fortunately, several medical firms from around the world are researching cheap and effective ways of treating illnesses. Among them is Immusoft, a company that aims to revolutionize how medicines are delivered to our bodies.

Instead of spending billions of dollars on drugs and therapy programs, Immusoft believes that we can engineer our bodies to produce drugs by themselves. With help from the immune system, cells of a patient can be altered to receive new genetic information that allows them to make their own medicine. The genetic information can be delivered via nano-sized capsules injected into the body.

The new method hasn’t been tested out on a human patient yet. Nevertheless, Immusoft and other institutions have reported successful experiments conducted on mice. If proven effective on humans, the method will significantly reduce the treatment and therapy costs of cardiovascular diseases and various other illnesses.

4 Molecular Communication

There are circumstances in which electromagnetic waves, the soul of global telecommunication, become unusable. Think of an electromagnetic pulse that could render communication satellites, and every form of technology relying on them, useless. We are quite familiar with such terrifying scenarios from doomsday movies. Furthermore, this issue has been contemplated for years by researchers from the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom and the York University in Canada before ultimately coming up with an unexpected solution.

The researchers observed how some animal species, particularly insects, employ pheromones to communicate across long distances. After collecting the data, they were able to develop a communication method in which messages are encoded in the molecules of evaporated alcohol. The researchers successfully demonstrated the new technique using rubbing alcohol as a signaling chemical and “O Canada” as their first message.

Two devices were employed with this method including a transmitter to encode and send the message and a receiver to decode and display it. The method works by keying in a text message on the transmitter using Arduino Uno (an open-source microcontroller) that comes with an LCD screen and buttons. The controller then converts the text input into a binary sequence which is read by an electronic sprayer containing the alcohol. Once the binary message is read, the sprayer converts it into a controlled set of sprays where “1” represents a spray and “0” equals no spray. The alcohol in the air is then detected by the receiver which consists of a chemical sensor and a microcontroller. The receiver reads and converts the binary data back to text before displaying it on a screen.

The researchers were able to send and receive the “O Canada” message across several feet of open space. As a result, a number of scientists have expressed confidence in the method. They believe it might be helpful in environments such as underground tunnels or pipelines where electromagnetic waves become useless.

3 Computer Storage

During the past few decades, computers have grown exponentially in both processing power and storage capacity. This phenomenon was accurately predicted by James Moore around 50 years ago and later became widely known as Moore’s Law. However, many scientists—including the physicist Michio Kaku—believe that Moore’s Law is falling apart. This is due to the fact that computer power cannot keep up with the exponential rise of the existing manufacturing technologies.

Though Kaku was emphasizing processing power, the same concept applies to storage capacity. Luckily, it’s not the end of the road. A team of researchers from RMIT University in Melbourne are now exploring the alternatives. Led by Dr. Sharath Sriram, the team is on the verge of developing storage devices that mimic the way the human brain stores information. The researchers took the first step and built a nano film that is chemically designed to preserve electric charges in on and off states. The film, which is 10,000 times thinner than a human hair, might become the cornerstone for developing memory devices that replicate the neural networks of the brain.

2 Nano Art

The promising development of nanotechnology has earned a great deal of admiration from the scientific community. Nevertheless, breakthroughs in nanotechnology are no longer confined to medicine, biology, and engineering. Nano art is an emerging field that allows us to view the tiny world under the microscope from an entirely new perspective.

As its name implies, nano art is a combination of art and nanoscience practiced by a small number of scientists and artists. Among them is John Hart, a mechanical engineer from the University of Michigan, who made a nano portrait of President Barack Obama. The portrait, which was named Nanobama, was created to honor the President when he was a candidate during the 2008 presidential elections. Each face in Nanobama measures just half a millimeter across and is entirely sculpted from 150 nanotubes. To produce the portraits, Hart first created a line drawing of the iconic “Hope” poster. He then printed the drawing on a glass plate coated with the nanoparticles needed to grow nanotubes. Using a high-temperature furnace, it was only a matter of time before the portrait was ready for a photo shoot.

1 Record Breaking

Humanity has always sought to build the strongest, fastest, and largest things. But, when it comes to building the smallest, nanotechnology emerges on the stage. Among the tiniest things ever created using nanotechnology is a book called Teeny Ted From Turnip which is currently regarded as the world’s smallest printed book. Produced in the Nano Imaging Laboratory at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada, the book measures just 70 micrometers by 100 micrometers and is made of letters carved on 30 crystalline silicon pages.

The book’s story, written by Malcolm Douglas Chaplin, features Teeny Ted and his triumph at the turnip contest at the annual county fair. Over 100 copies of the book have been published. But to buy one of them you will need a deep pocket—a single book costs over $15,000. An electron microscope will also be required to read it, adding even more to the cost.

We at Genesis Nanotechnology, Inc. would like to take this opportunity wish all of our Readers, Subscribers, Business Partners and Associates a most Blessed and Prosperous New Year!

It truly has been an amazing year for us. Every day the ‘World of Small Things’ has delivered new learning opportunities, a renewed sense of ‘wonderment’ in the unseen world around us and the opportunity to build new relationships with an ever expanding horizon of commercial opportunity.

And so .. a “Irish” Blessing for ALL of you for 2015

May the road rise up to meet you. May the wind always be at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face, and rains fall soft upon your fields. And until we meet again, May God hold you in the palm of His hand.

All the Best,

Bruce W. Hoy

CEO, Managing Partner

Genesis Nanotechnology, Inc.

30 Dec 2014

No methods currently exist for the early detection of Alzheimer’s disease, which affects one out of nine people over the age of 65. Now, an interdisciplinary team of Northwestern University scientists and engineers has developed a noninvasive MRI approach that can detect the disease in a living animal. And it can do so at the earliest stages of the disease, well before typical Alzheimer’s symptoms appear.

Led by neuroscientist William L. Klein and materials scientist Vinayak P. Dravid, the research team developed an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) probe that pairs a magnetic nanostructure (MNS) with an antibody that seeks out the amyloid beta brain toxins responsible for onset of the disease. The accumulated toxins, because of the associated magnetic nanostructures, show up as dark areas in MRI scans of the brain.

This ability to detect the molecular toxins may one day enable scientists to both spot trouble early and better design drugs or therapies to combat and monitor the disease. And, while not the focus of the study, early evidence suggests the MRI probe improves memory, too, by binding to the toxins to render them “handcuffed” to do further damage.

This ability to detect the molecular toxins may one day enable scientists to both spot trouble early and better design drugs or therapies to combat and monitor the disease. And, while not the focus of the study, early evidence suggests the MRI probe improves memory, too, by binding to the toxins to render them “handcuffed” to do further damage.

“We have a new brain imaging method that can detect the toxin that leads to Alzheimer’s disease,” said Klein, who first identified the amyloid beta oligomer in 1998. He is a professor of neurobiology in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences.

“Using MRI, we can see the toxins attached to neurons in the brain,” Klein said. “We expect to use this tool to detect this disease early and to help identify drugs that can effectively eliminate the toxin and improve health.”

With the successful demonstration of the MRI probe, Northwestern researchers now have established the molecular basis for the cause, detection by non-invasive MR imaging and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. Dravid introduced this magnetic nanostructure MRI contrast enhancement approach for Alzheimer’s following his earlier work utilizing MNS as smart nanotechnology carriers for targeted cancer diagnostics and therapy. (A MNS is typically 10 to 15 nanometers in diameter; one nanometer is one billionth of a meter.)

Details of the new Alzheimer’s disease diagnostic are published today (Dec. 22) by the journal Nature Nanotechnology. Klein and Dravid are co-corresponding authors.

The emotional and economic impacts of Alzheimer’s disease are devastating. This year, the direct cost of the disease in the United States is more than $200 billion, according to the Alzheimer’s Association’s “2014 Alzheimer’s Disease Facts and Figures.” By the year 2050, that cost is expected to be $1.1 trillion as baby boomers age. And these figures do not account for the lost time of caregivers.

This new MRI probe technology is detecting something different from conventional technology: toxic amyloid beta oligomers instead of plaques, which occur at a stage of Alzheimer’s when therapeutic intervention would be very late. Amyloid beta oligomers now are widely believed to be the culprit in the onset of Alzheimer’s disease and subsequent memory loss.

In a diseased brain, the mobile amyloid beta oligomers attack the synapses of neurons, destroying memory and ultimately resulting in neuron death. As time progresses, the amyloid beta builds up and starts to stick together, forming the amyloid plaques that current probes target. Oligomers may appear more than a decade before plaques are detected.

“Non-invasive imaging by MRI of amyloid beta oligomers is a giant step forward towards diagnosis of this debilitating disease in its earliest form,” said Dravid, the Abraham Harris Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science.

There is a major need for what the Northwestern research team is doing — identifying and detecting the correct biomarker for new drug discovery. Despite extraordinary efforts, no effective drugs exist yet for Alzheimer’s disease.

“This MRI method could be used to determine how well a new drug is working,” Dravid said. “If a drug is effective, you would expect the amyloid beta signal to go down.”

The nontoxic MRI probe was delivered intranasally to mouse models with Alzheimer’s disease and control animals without the disease. In animals with Alzheimer’s, the toxins’ presence can be seen clearly in the hippocampus in MRI scans of the brain. No dark areas, however, were seen in the hippocampus of the control group.

The ability to detect amyloid beta oligomers, Klein said, is important for two reasons: amyloid beta oligomers are the toxins that damage neurons, and the oligomers are the first sign of trouble in the disease process, appearing before any other pathology.

Klein, Dravid and their colleagues also observed that the behavior of animals with Alzheimer’s improved even after receiving a single dose of the MRI probe.

“While preliminary, the data suggests the probe could be used not only as a diagnostic tool but also as a therapeutic,” said Kirsten L. Viola, a co-first author of the study and a research manager in Klein’s laboratory.

Along with the studies in live animals, the research team also studied human brain tissue from Northwestern’s Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer’s Disease Center. The samples were from individuals who died from Alzheimer’s and those who did not have the disease. After introducing the MRI probe, the researchers saw large dark areas in the Alzheimer brains, indicating the presence of amyloid beta oligomers.

The most common flexible substrates used for flexible solar cells so far have been synthetic polymers such as polyethylene terephthalate (commonly known as PET) and polyethylene naphthalate (PEN). However, if organic solar cells are to be applied onto clothes and other soft surfaces – some of which come into direct contact with skin – they are required to be human-compatible, non-toxic and non-irritable.

One possible solution for such a substrate could be silk. “The natural silk fibroin – extracted from the silkworm (Bombyx mori) cocoon – is a promising alternative material due to its good biocompatibility, biodegradability, non-toxicity, non-irritability and advantageous mechanical properties, as well as high optical transmittance (90-95%) of films,” Baoquan Sun, a professor in Materials Science at Soochow University in Suzhou, PR China, tells Nanowerk. “Furthermore, the biodegradable and mechanical properties of silk fibroin substrates can be tailored by controlling the fabrication process, such that they match the desired requirements for some specific application.”

Sun and his team, together with researchers from the National Engineering Laboratory for Modern Silk, also at Soochow University, integrated a biocompatible silk fibroin with a mesh of silver nanowires to achieve a flexible, transparent, and biodegradable substrate for efficient plastic solar cells. They have reported their findings in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces (“Highly Flexible and Lightweight Organic Solar Cells on Biocompatible Silk Fibroin”).

The figure shows the silkworm cocoon picture and the scheme of plastic solar cell with silk fibroin film as substrate. The device can be flexible and compatible with human skin. Here, PEDOT:PSS, PTB7 and PCBM stand for poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene), polystyrene sulfonate thieno[3,4-b]thiophene/benzodithiophene and [6,6]-phenyl-C71-butyric acid methyl ester, respectively. (Image: Sun group, Soochow University))

“Our flexible substrate can achieve a conductivity of ∼11.0 Ω/sq and a transmittance of ∼80% in the visible light range, which is much better than the commercialized flexible substrate such as indium tin oxide coated PET and indium tin oxide coated polyethylene naphthalate,” says Sun. “The power conversion efficiency of 6.6% is relatively high on the silk fibroin substrate.” He points out that, even after extremely rigid bending, the devices retain a stable conductivity that is superior to traditional flexible ITO-PEN substrates. He also notes that the conductivity of bent silver nanowire silk fibroin substrates can be recovered via a ‘self-healing’ process. In order to form a continuous conductive film on transparent films, silver nanowire mesh is usually fabricated by directly spin- or spray-coating onto a transparent substrate. The resulting film is rough due to the random distribution of silver nanowire piling on the substrate. “This roughness is a disadvantage because substrate flatness is critical to fabricating the ∼100-nm-thick active layer of the plastic solar cell,” explains Sun. “Additionally, the deposited silver nanowire displayed poor adhesion properties on the substrate.” To resolve this problem, the researchers first deposited silver nanowires on a flat model substrate instead of being directly deposited onto the substrate. Then, the aqueous silk fibroin solution was coated onto the silver nanowire-covered substrate. This work illustrates another step towards fully biocompatible plastic solar cells that one day might be integrated with objects and devices of everyday use and even with living tissue for some futuristic bionic applications.

30 Dec 2014

Don’t be mesmerized by cool apps and flashy new gizmos – the top technology inventions of the year are ones that will have a lasting effect.

Most are advances in fields that are already changing us. Some will have immediate impact; others are portents of transformations that may take decades to complete. In this vein, and in no particular order, here are what I consider to be ten of the best technological innovations from 2014.

1. DNA Nanobots injected into cockroaches

Nanotechnology is a growing research field that manipulates materials on a molecular scale. One prospect is to transform medicine by injecting nanobots into the body where they perform functions such as treating disease.

In February, an Israeli team described devices they made from DNA and injected into cockroaches. By performing a kind of origami, the DNA nanobots assembled themselves and were able to control a molecule that targeted specific cells, so demonstrating their potential to carry out medical functions such as attacking cancers.

2. Nanotubes in chloroplasts created super plants

Nanotubes are large carbon molecules that form tubes with unusual thermal and electrical properties. In March, a team from MIT and CalTech published a method for inserting nanotubes into plant chloroplasts. The novel combination boosted photosynthesis and plant growth by several hundred percent.

Applications are still years away, but besides increasing plant growth and production, there are extraordinary possibilities: tapping plants for electrical power, building self-repairing materials and erecting buildings from materials that generate their own power.

3. Scallop-shaped robots swam through blood

Researchers at Germany’s Max Planck Institute developed tiny robots that could swim through the bloodstream, repairing tissue damage or transporting medicine.

The challenge they faced was blood’s viscosity: it not only impeded movement but also varied according to speed. They solved the problem by designing robots in the shape of scallops powered by an external magnetic field. These robots provide a starting point for many kinds of medical devices of the future.

4. A microchip helped a paralysed man regain the use of his arm

Implants are revolutionising the treatment of many medical conditions. In April, researchers at Ohio State University reported success in using a microchip implant to help a paralysed man regain use of his arm.

Ten years in development, the device, known as Neurobridge, stimulates muscles according to brain patterns. The innovation raises hopes for many disabled people. It showed that by plugging into our brainwaves we may one day control all manner of devices by thought alone.

5. Nose cells helped repair a severed spinal cord

Biotechnology is producing new cures for medical conditions long thought to be permanent. A medical team at Wroclaw Medical University cultured nerve cells taken from a patient’s nose and surgically inserted them into his spinal cord.

The transplanted cells stimulated severed nerve fibres to grow and rejoin, thus bridging a damaged section of the spinal column and allowing the patient to walk again. This innovation showed that damage to the nervous system can be reversed.

6. Unmanned drones: the future of delivery services

Unmanned flying drones are taking on a rapidly growing number of roles, especially in surveillance and monitoring. Following Chinese experiments last year to test drones as a delivery system for parcels, 2014 saw rapid expansion of serious business interest.

7. A swarm of self-assembling mini-robots

Robots are already important tools in many industries, but put them into swarms and they can do so much more. In August the journal Science reported work at Harvard in which 1,000 mini-robots, the largest swarm so far, was able to assemble itself into programmed shapes.

There is still a long way to go, but it raised the potential for structures that self-assemble, which would revolutionise construction.

8. 3D printers pushed the boundaries

3D printing is now an established technology, but developments this year expanded its capabilities and applications. At the one extreme a team in Amsterdam began a project to build an entire house using 3D printing.

Meanwhile researchers at Princeton developed a 3D printer that could print with five different materials, incorporating dot-emitting diodes, and demonstrated it by making contact lenses. This raises many possibilities, from wearable video to monitoring the health of pilots.

9. The next frontier in space exploration

Events this year highlighted the international character of solar system exploration in coming decades. Following a ten-year flight, European Space Agency’s probe Rosetta went into orbit around the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

Artist impression of the Rosetta spacecraft with comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.ESA/ATG medialab

On November 12, it released the probe Philae which became the first spacecraft to land on a comet.

Meanwhile, Mars exploration moved forward. India’s Mangalyaan spacecraft went into orbit around Mars in September and in December, NASA successfully launched the new Orion spacecraft, a first step in preparing for manned exploration of Mars.

10. Green power and clean water

Necessity is the mother of invention, so the greater the need, the more important the invention. A worldwide need is the 780 million peoplearound the world who lack access to clean water supplies. The challenge for inventors is to meet the World Health Organisation criteria for practical systems: accessible, simple and cheap.

What of next year? We can be sure that growing fields such as automation and nanotechnology will continue to surprise us. The US Patents Office granted more than 300,000 patents during 2013, nearly 30,000 more than 2012. If patents provide a reliable indicator, then new inventions are appearing faster than ever.

What’s the difference between the Eiffel Tower and the Washington Monument?

Both structures soar to impressive heights, and each was the world’s tallest building when completed. But the Washington Monument is a massive stone structure, while the Eiffel Tower achieves similar strength using a lattice of steel beams and struts that is mostly open air, gaining its strength from the geometric arrangement of those elements.

Now engineers at MIT and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) have devised a way to translate that airy, yet remarkably strong, structure down to the microscale — designing a system that could be fabricated from a variety of materials, such as metals or polymers, and that may set new records for stiffness for a given weight.

The new design is described in the journal Science by MIT’s Nicholas Fang; former postdoc Howon Lee, now an assistant professor at Rutgers University; visiting research fellow Qi “Kevin” Ge; LLNL’s Christopher Spadaccini and Xiaoyu “Rayne” Zheng; and eight others.

The design is based on the use of microlattices with nanoscale features, combining great stiffness and strength with ultralow density, the authors say. The actual production of such materials is made possible by a high-precision 3-D printing process called projection microstereolithography, as a result of the joint research collaboration between the Fang and Spadaccini groups since 2008.

Normally, Fang explains, stiffness and strength declines with the density of any material; that’s why when bone density decreases, fractures become more likely. But using the right mathematically determined structures to distribute and direct the loads — the way the arrangement of vertical, horizontal, and diagonal beams do in a structure like the Eiffel Tower — the lighter structure can maintain its strength.

A pleasant surprise

The geometric basis for such microstructures was determined more than a decade ago, Fang says, but it took years to transfer that mathematical understanding “to something we can print, using a digital projection — to convert this solid model on paper to something we can hold in our hand.” The result was “a pleasant surprise to us,” he adds, performing even better than anticipated.

“We found that for a material as light and sparse as aerogel [a kind of glass foam], we see a mechanical stiffness that’s comparable to that of solid rubber, and 400 times stronger than a counterpart of similar density. Such samples can easily withstand a load of more than 160,000 times their own weight,” says Fang, the Brit and Alex d’Arbeloff Career Development Associate Professor in Engineering Design. So far, the researchers at MIT and LLNL have tested the process using three engineering materials — metal, ceramic, and polymer — and all showed the same properties of being stiff at light weight.

“This material is among the lightest in the world,” LLNL’s Spadaccini says. “However, because of its microarchitected layout, it performs with four orders of magnitude higher stiffness than unstructured materials, like aerogels, at a comparable density.”

Light material, heavy loads

This approach could be useful anywhere there’s a need for a combination of high stiffness (for load bearing), high strength, and light weight — such as in structures to be deployed in space, where every bit of weight adds significantly to the cost of launch. But Fang says there may also be applications at smaller scale, such as in batteries for portable devices, where reduced weight is also highly desirable.

Another property of these materials is that they conduct sound and elastic waves very uniformly, meaning they could lead to new acoustic metamaterials, Fang says, that could help control how waves bend over a curved surface.

Others have suggested similar structural principles over the years, such as a proposal last year by researchers at MIT’s Center for Bits and Atoms (CBA) for materials that could be cut out as flat panels and assembled into tiny unit cells to make larger structures. But that concept would require assembly by robotic systems that have yet to be developed, says Fang, who has discussed this work with CBA researchers. This technique, he says, uses 3-D printing technology that can be implemented now.

Martin Wegener, a professor of mechanical engineering at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany who was not involved in this research, says, “Achieving metamaterials that are ultralight in weight, yet stiffer than you would expect from usual scaling laws for elastic solids, is of obvious technological interest. The paper makes an interesting contribution in this direction.”

The work was supported by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and LLNL.

Traditional genomic, proteomic and other screening methods currently used to characterize drug mechanisms are time-consuming and require special equipment, but now researchers led by chemist Vincent Rotello at the University of Massachusetts Amherst offer a multi-channel sensor method using gold nanoparticles that can accurately profile various anti-cancer drugs and their mechanisms in minutes.

Cars that run on natural gas are touted as efficient and environmentally friendly, but getting enough gas onboard to make them practical is a hurdle. A new study led by researchers at Rice University promises to help. Rather than shoehorn bulky high-pressure tanks like those used in buses and trucks into light vehicles, the Department of Energy (DOE) encourages scientists to look at new materials that can store compressed natural gas (CNG) at low pressure and at room temperature.

Cage-like synthetic macromolecules called metal organic frameworks (MOFs) are among the candidates.

Nanowires are structures whose thickness is in the order of a nanometer (10-9 meters) but their length can be considerably longer. At the cutting edge of science and engineering, nanowires are used in different ways depending on what they are made of, such as insulators and semiconductors in electronics and computer chips. Now, EPFL scientists have found a novel way to make nanowires from a light-absorbing lead-containing material called a perovskite, which is used in the new generation of solar cells. Their innovative yet simple method is published in Nano Letters (“Nanowires of Methylammonium Lead Iodide (CH3NH3PbI3) Prepared by Low Temperature Solution-Mediated Crystallization”).

No solar cell material ever has enjoyed such a rapid trajectory of improvements — nor the subsequent attention from researchers, industry, and media — as perovskite. This material, known for decades but whose ability to convert sunlight wasn’t appreciated until the past few years, has suddenly gained popularity with a velocity proportional to the flood of performance improvements coming out months and even weeks apart: from barely 3 percent conversion efficiency in 2009 to 10 percent in 2012, 16 percent in 2013, and as high as 19 percent according to recent conference reports. (A combination of c-Si cells and perovskite is thought to be able to achieve 32 percent efficiency.) That’s tantalizingly alongside the performance of mainstream conventional silicon-based PV, but with the potential for far simpler and cheaper processes and manufacturing.

Forget about Google Glass or the latest smart watch announcements – the future will belong to electronic textiles (e-textiles) that will allow the design and production of a new generation of garments with built-in unobtrusive sensors and a variety of electronic functions. Such e-textiles will have the revolutionary ability to sense, act, store, emit, and move – think biomedical monitoring functions or new man-machine interfaces – while ideally leveraging an existing low-cost textile manufacturing infrastructure.

All these wearable and potentially textile-embedded electronic gadgets will require power; and it wouldn’t make sense to have to plug your sleek flexible sleeve display into a bulky lithium-ion battery brick.

NanoMarkets believes that opportunities for commercial use of quantum dots (QDs) have changed dramatically in the past year, and this, our most recent report on QDs, identifies where the money will be made as the a result of these new trends and developments.

QDs have now exploded onto the commercial display market and are appearing in displays of all sizes, enabling LCDs with greater color gamut and lower power consumption. These QD-enhanced LCDs are already providing direct competition to OLED displays, raising the question of whether OLED displays will ever take off in the way that was once hoped. At the same time NanoMarkets believes that ability of the QD makers to supply sufficient materials to support future growth is no longer an issue.

24 Dec 2014

NanoMarkets believes that opportunities for commercial use of quantum dots (QDs) have changed dramatically in the past year, and this, our most recent report on QDs, identifies where the money will be made as the a result of these new trends and developments.

QDs have now exploded onto the commercial display market and are appearing in displays of all sizes, enabling LCDs with greater color gamut and lower power consumption. These QD-enhanced LCDs are already providing direct competition to OLED displays, raising the question of whether OLED displays will ever take off in the way that was once hoped. At the same time NanoMarkets believes that ability of the QD makers to supply sufficient materials to support future growth is no longer an issue.

As a result of these trends, the granular eight-year forecasts of volume shipments and revenue generated contained in this report reflect NanoMarkets growing bullishness about QDs. We have also considered how the QD supply chain is likely to change as the competition between QD suppliers to get the attention of major OEMs increases.

Most of the revenue generation from QDs will come from the display industry for the next few years. This is where the money is, and although 2014 saw the introduction of several QD-enhanced LCDs by a number of OEMs, QDs have still penetrated only a very small portion of the LCD market as yet.

Potential growth is huge and in the next three to eight years NanoMarkets believe that the QD industry will build upon its success in displays and expand into other commercial applications. These newer markets are also analyzed in this report. NanoMarkets thinks that solid-state lighting, with similar technical requirements to displays, will be the next to market. In the longer term we see potential for commercial development of QDs in solar cells and as fluorescent biomarkers, though both applications currently face substantial technical hurdles. Semiconductor diode lasers are also a potentially important application for QDs.

In this report, NanoMarkets discusses opportunities in QDs for companies throughout the supply chain – from QD suppliers to LED component makers to OEMs – and predicts how moves by these companies will affect the growth of the QD industry. We also look at the state of QD technology and what improvements will be needed to enable further growth.

This is one of the biggest breakthrough technologies for LCD in recent several years. Now quantum dot LCD is challenging AMOLED. Touch Display Research surveyed many quantum dot suppliers and found that the quantum dot display component market surpassed $70 million in 2013.

We forecast that the quantum dot display and lighting component market will reach $9.6 billion by 2023. Touch Display Research will be at CES 2015 and report about all quantum dot displays and lighting.

24 Dec 2014

Quantum dots made of pure selenium can be made by simply firing a laser beam at selenium powder mixed into a glass of water. The easy and inexpensive process was developed by researchers at the University of Texas at San Antonio and Northeastern University in the US, and unlike other techniques, does not involve potentially toxic chemicals. The high-quality nanostructures could be used in two very different applications: as antibacterial agents and as light harvesters in solar cells.

Quantum dots are tiny pieces of semiconductor – such as selenium – that are typically tens of nanometres across. The size of a quantum dot dictates how their charge-carrying electrons and holes interact with light. As a result, they are of great interest to researchers trying to develop photonic technologies and especially solar cells. However, growing quantum dots that are pure and all the same size can be a challenge.

Green and easy

The researchers, led by Gregory Guisbiers in San Antonio, created their pure selenium quantum dots using a technique called pulsed laser ablation in liquids (PLAL), which involves simply firing a pulsed laser beam at a target – in this case selenium powder in water. “Our method is ‘green’ because it does not involve any dangerous solvents, only water, and there are no toxic adducts or by-products, like those often encountered in many wet chemistry processes,” explains Guisbiers. “It is also cheap and easy because we do not need a vacuum chamber or clean room – everything is done in a beaker of water.” The pure nanoparticles produced are also easy to collect and store because they are directly synthesized in solution, he adds.

This is the first time that selenium quantum dots have been synthesized using PLAL at ultraviolet and visible wavelengths, he says. These wavelengths are particularly interesting because they are better at reducing the size of particles compared with light at near-infrared wavelengths. Guisbiers and colleagues also showed that the crystallinity of the nanoparticles created by this technique depends on their size – that is, the smallest particles are crystalline while the largest ones are amorphous.

Antibacterial and anti-cancer

Selenium nanoparticles have antibacterial and anti-cancer properties, and could be used in medicine because the material is biocompatible and already exists in our bodies. However, nanoparticles need to be free of surface contaminants if they are to be employed in a biomedical setting – something that has proved difficult to achieve in the past.

The team, which has already tested its nanoparticles on E. coli, is now looking to see if they are efficient at killing other types of bacteria. “We are particularly interested in other bacteria involved in nosocomial diseases, like the methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus,” Guisbiers says. “I’m told that [hospital-acquired infections] cause roughly 100,000 deaths every year in the US alone because bacteria are becoming more and more resistant to existing antibiotics. What’s more, these so-called super-germs are spreading worldwide, making this a major international health concern.”

The researchers will report their work in an upcoming issue of Laser Physics Letters. The team is also planning to incorporate the pure selenium quantum dots that they made into third-generation solar cells. “Indeed, since the element itself is a p-type semiconductor, when combined with an n-type semiconductor, we can build p–n junctions (the building blocks of all modern-day electronics) at the nanoscale,” adds Guisbiers.

24 Dec 2014

The lithium-ion batteries that mobilize our electronic devices need to be improved if they are to power electric vehicles or store electrical energy for the grid. Berkeley Lab researchers looking for a better understanding of liquid electrolyte may have found a pathway forward. A team led by Richard Saykally, a chemist with Berkeley Lab’s Chemical Sciences Division, David Prendergast, a theorist with Berkeley Lab’s Molecular Foundry, and Steven Harris, a chemist with the Lab’s Materials Sciences Division, found surprising results in the first X-ray absorption spectroscopy study of a model lithium electrolyte (“X-Ray absorption spectroscopy of LiBF4 in propylene carbonate: a model lithium ion battery electrolyte”).

“A crucial process in lithium ion batteries is the transport of lithium ions between the electrodes,” explains Saykally. “Commercial lithium-ion batteries contain a liquid electrolyte comprising a lithium salt dissolved in an alkyl carbonate solvent system. There’s disagreement in the battery industry on the nature of the local solvation environment of lithium ions in these solutions, a critical issue because the desolvation of the ions as they move through the negative electrode is believed to limit the electrical power that can be made available.”

Most previous computational simulations have predicted a tetrahedral solvation structure for the lithium ion in the electrolyte, but the new study by Saykally, Prendergast, Harris and their collaborators show this to not be the case.

“Our results indicate a solvation number of 4.5, which points to a non-tetrahedral solvation structure for the lithium ions,” says lithium-battery expert Harris. “This contradicts numerous theoretical studies which indicated a primarily tetrahedral coordination structure with a solvation number near 2 or 3, depending on the prevalence of ion pairing. Based on our results, to design better performing electrolytes, future computational models will need to move beyond tetrahedral coordination structures.”

Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) make any short list of great inventions of the 20th century. Today LIBs represent a multibillion dollar industry as the power supply of cellular phones, tablets, laptops and other handheld electronic devices. However, serious shortcomings – high costs, inadequate energy densities, long recharge times and short cycle-life times – have hampered the use of LIBS for electric vehicles and for efficient electrical energy storage systems that can be used in conjunction with wind and solar energy sources.

Although it has become increasingly clear to the battery industry that improvements in the liquid electrolyte are essential if LIBs are to be effective for electric vehicles and large-scale energy storage, most LIB research has focused on the electrodes and solid electrolyte interphase. The problem has been a lack of capabilities for the requisite experiments, particularly X-ray spectroscopy.

This deficiency was addressed by Saykally and his group with their development of a unique liquid microjet technology in which two aqueous samples rapidly mix and flow through a finely tipped silica nozzle only a few micrometers in diameter. The resulting liquid beam travels a few centimeters in a vacuum chamber before it is intersected by an X-ray beam then collected and condensed out. This liquid microjet system has been set up at Beamline 8.0.1 of Berkeley Lab’s Advanced Light Source (ALS). Beamline 8.0.1 is a high flux undulator beamline that produces X-ray beams optimized for X-ray spectroscopy.

“Working at the ALS with our liquid microjet system, we used X-ray absorption spectroscopy to study lithium tetrafluoroborate in propylene carbonate,” Saykally says. “X-ray absorption spectroscopy is an atom-specific core-level spectroscopic probe of unoccupied electronic states. It is highly sensitive to both the intra- and intermolecular environment of the target atom.”

The XAS experimental spectra were interpreted through molecular dynamics and density functional theory spectral simulations carried out on the supercomputers at the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC) by Prendergast and Jacob Smith, a graduate student in Saykally’s research group. The ALS, the Molecular Foundry and NERSC are all DOE Office of Science national user facilities hosted at Berkeley Lab.

Sep 22, 2018 / Comments Off on MIT: New battery technology gobbles up carbon dioxide – Ultimately may help reduce the emission of the greenhouse gas to the atmosphere + Could Carbon Dioxide Capture Batteries Replace Phone and EV Batteries?